A Bus Advertisement May Be The Answer
10 Oct 2004
"Why must I wait so long for a cataract operation?" one reader asks. Another angrily asks why her mother had to die in agony from terminal cancer. This past year I’ve received an increasing number of letters from readers dealing with this type of problem. And during a recent trip to Oxford University in England a bus advertisement could help to solve these troubles.
The bus ad read, "Now you can have the hospital you’ve always wanted". Since there’s so much debate in this country about our deteriorating hospital system I couldn’t resist calling the number on the bus and visiting Acland Hospital.
I was surprised to find that Acland Hospital in Oxford was merely one of their 45 Nuffield "private hospitals" in England. They added, that there were hundreds of private hospitals scattered throughout the country. And rather than being shut down by the Labour Government private hospitals were expanding. What a change from the situation in Canada!
Equally surprising, this hospital isn’t just for the rich. I was advised that many labour unions now insist on being cared for in private hospitals as part of their contract.
How does Acland hospital survive? The day I visited surgeons were performing cataract operations and being charged for the amount of time spent in surgery. And those seeing patients were again charged for the amount of time spent consulting.
Not all people have private insurance. I talked with one elderly man at Oxford University who didn’t want to wait in line to have varicose veins treated. So he bought a package that paid for his hospital stay and the surgeons fee. He was pleased this option was available.
The town of Tetbury provided another example of British ingenuity. The government decided to close the local hospital that had provided services since 1869. So an aroused community raised three million dollars and changed it into a private hospital. They to now charge doctors for operating time and office space and volunteers aid the medical staff. I think one could justifiably argue that it’s high time for a little ingenuity in this country.
I couldn’t resist checking on the current status of heroin in England for treating terminal cancer pain. Readers may recall that 20 years ago I conducted a campaign to legalize this potent painkiller. It had been used successfully in England for over a hundred years and it seemed a humanitarian act to have this painkiller available in Canada.
The opponents of heroin immediately labelled me as a "headline seeking medical journalist. They claimed argued that morphine was a good as heroin which was unmitigated nonsense. They argued that criminals would break into hospitals to obtain supplies when this was never a problem in England. But in spite of the opposition of the Cancer Society, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Hospital Pharmacists heroin was legalized.
It was a battle won and a war lost. So much red tape resulted in doctors not using it. Finally the pharmaceutical company due to lack of use stopped importing heron from England.
I visited the Churchill Hospital palliative centre in Oxford and other areas and heroin in still used effectively treating cancer patients. It’s a tragedy that what has been called "God’s own painkiller" is not available in this country.
One further thought. When I read the newspaper I often wonder why there’s such a lack of common sense in this country.
But during my stay in London I read about a convict who had killed a man by stabbing him 50 times with a knife and dumping him in a bin. Now he has swapped jeans and shirts for stylish women’s clothes and wears gaudy makeup. He’s also created a storm of public protect by demanding 32,000 pounds for a sex-change operation. And he has already started electrolysis treatment to remove excess hair along with female hormone treatment in preparation for the surgery. The shocker is that under Prison Service rules inmates are permitted to change sex and have the National Health System pay for it. I find it a bit reassuring that all the insanity sanity is not confined to Canada.
